LID ALLOWING FOR LIQUID METAL THERMAL INTERFACING MATERIALS IN A LIDDED FLIP CHIP PACKAGE
The disclosure describes a lid allowing for a liquid thermal interface material (TIM) in a lidded flip chip package. The lid includes a reservoir structure so that a liquid system can be formed in the lidded flip chip package, allowing for a liquid TIM in the gap between the lid and the flip chip. The reservoir structure comprises a seal ring, a connecting hole and a reservoir which is a tunnel for taking in a liquid material and releasing it again from and to the gap according to the change of the gap volume. The lid further includes an injection hole and a plug for filling and removing liquid into or from the gap and reservoir. The lid further includes a plurality of pins, which extrude downwards from the bottom surface of the lid so as to strongly bond with the substrate of the flip chip package through an adhesive.
The disclosure relates generally to a heat-dissipating object for dissipating heat from a heat-generating object in an electronic device, and particularly to a lid for a lidded flip chip package to use a liquid thermal interface material (TIM).
BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSUREIn a flip chip package with a semiconductor chip being a heat-generating object, a thermal interface material (TIM) is usually used to fill the gap between the flip chip and a heat-dissipating object, like a lid or a heat sink for transferring the heat from one to the other. The types of the TIM basically include thermal pad, thermal grease, phase change material and liquid metal. A good TIM needs to have 1) a high thermal conductivity, 2) a good surface wetting capability for reducing the thermal contact resistance, 3) a good gap filling capability, and 4) a good thermal reliability in test or application. A liquid metal as TIM usually includes gallium and gallium alloy. The melting point of the gallium is about 29° C., and that of gallium alloy is even lower. The thermal conductivity of the liquid metal is much higher than the extensively used thermal pad or thermal grease. Furthermore, a liquid metal has much better capability for surface wetting and gap filling. So, of all the types of TIM, a liquid metal is an ideal TIM if only looking at the first three items. If a liquid metal can be used in a lidded flip chip package, the temperature of the lidded flip chip package can be reduced significantly as compared to other types of TIM. However, the conventional lidded flip chip packages based on a conventional lid of prior arts are limited to use a liquid metal as its TIM due to the pumping-out issue, that is, when the package is under a thermal cycling test or in its long term of application, the volume of the gap between the flip chip and the lid varies with temperature due to the warpage of the flip chip, causing the liquid metal TIM to be pumped out. The TIM pumping-out issue will cause an incomplete gap filling between the flip chip and the lid, reducing the thermal performance of TIM. And the more important thing is that because a liquid metal is electrically conductive, a small amount of TIM pumping-out may damage the whole electronic device. As a result, a liquid metal type of TIM has not been commercially used in a lidded flip chip package. In general, because of the similar reason, a liquid metal type of TIM is rarely interposed between a heat-dissipating object (a heat sink, for example) and a heat-generating object (a semiconductor chip, for example) in an electronic device.
For overcoming the TIM pumping-out issue for an electronic device such as a lidded flip chip package to use a liquid TIM, a lid coupled with a reservoir structure has been disclosed in the prior art, U.S. Ser. No. 10/643,924 B1. However, the lid of the prior art has two disadvantages in its application. To eliminate the two disadvantages, a lid and its lidded flip chip package are described in the present disclosure of the present invention.
SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSUREA lid allowing for a liquid thermal interface material (TIM) in a lidded flip chip package, comprising: the lid, consisting of a top piece, which has a top surface and a bottom surface and a plurality of pins; and a reservoir structure comprising: a reservoir, a seal ring, and a connecting hole, wherein the top piece of the lid has a ring-form of slot on its bottom surface and the seal ring is mounted in the ring-form of slot, the seal ring directly sealing a peripheral edge region at a top surface of the flip chip with a portion on the bottom surface of the top piece, providing a gap between a portion of the bottom surface of the top piece and a portion of the top surface of the flip chip, and the gap being entirely filled with the liquid, wherein the reservoir is a tunnel in the top piece of the lid, which has an opening to the ambient, and the tunnel being partially filled with the liquid, wherein the connecting hole has an end at a portion of the bottom surface of the top piece surrounded by the seal ring, and another end connecting to the reservoir, wherein the top piece of the lid has an injection hole and a plug, the injection hole has an end at a portion of the bottom surface of the top piece surrounded by the seal ring, and another end at a portion of the bottom surface of the top piece is closed by the plug, and wherein the plurality of pins extrude downwards from the portion of the bottom surface of the top piece outside the seal ring and form an array of pins, and an adhesive material fills among the pins and between the pins and the substrate of the lidded flip chip package so as to bond the lid with the substrate.
A method for making the lid allowing for a liquid thermal interface material (TIM) in a lidded flip chip package, comprising the following major steps:
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- 1) Prepare a piece of material,
- 2) Form a spiral pattern of slot and a ring-form of slot at the bottom surface of the piece of material,
- 3) Form two through holes for making a connecting hole and an injection hole,
- 4) Form a rectangular slot for connecting the two through holes,
- 5) Form a ring-form of covering piece, a bridging bar, a plug and a seal ring,
- 6) Bond the ring-form of covering piece onto the bottom surface of the piece of material, covering the spiral pattern of tunnel to form a spiral pattern of tunnel,
- 7) Mount the bridging bar into the rectangular slot for forming a connecting hole from the spiral pattern of tunnel to a portion of the bottom surface of the piece of material surrounded by the ring-form of slot,
- 8) Place the plug into the injection hole,
- 9) Mount the seal ring into the ring-form of slot.
The features and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the detailed descriptions in conjunction with the drawings below. The drawings and associated descriptions are to illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure, not to limit the scope of what is claimed.
The lidded flip chip package 220 based on the lid 200 designated by the numerical symbol 2000 in
Although the present invention is described in some details for illustrative purpose with reference to the specific embodiments and drawings, it is apparent that many other modifications and variations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
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17. A lid allowing for a liquid thermal interface material (TIM) in a lidded flip chip package, comprising:
- a top piece, which has a top surface and a bottom surface and a plurality of pins; and a reservoir structure comprising: a reservoir, a seal ring, and a connecting hole, wherein the top piece of the lid has a ring-form of slot on its bottom surface and the seal ring is mounted in the ring-form of slot, the seal ring directly sealing a peripheral edge region at a top surface of a flip chip with a portion on the bottom surface of the top piece, providing a gap between a portion of the bottom surface of the top piece and a portion of the top surface of the flip chip, and the gap being entirely filled with a liquid, wherein the reservoir is a tunnel in the top piece of the lid, which has an opening to an ambient, and the tunnel being partially filled with a liquid, wherein the connecting hole has an end at a portion of the bottom surface of the top piece surrounded by the seal ring, and another end connecting to the reservoir, wherein the top piece of the lid has an injection hole and a plug, the injection hole has an end at a portion of the bottom surface of the top piece surrounded by the seal ring, and another end at a portion of the top surface of the top piece is closed by the plug, and wherein the plurality of pins extrude downwards from the portion of the bottom surface of the top piece outside the seal ring and form an array of pins, and an adhesive material fills among the pins and between the pins and a substrate of the lidded flip chip package so as to bond the lid with the substrate.
18. The lid of claim 1, wherein the injection hole is a screw hole, and the plug is a screw plug.
19. The lid of claim 1, wherein the injection hole is a blind hole, and the plug is a rubber plug.
20. The lid of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pins form a full array on the portion of the bottom surface of the top piece outside the seal ring.
21. The lid of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pins form a full array on the portion of the bottom surface of the top piece outside the seal ring and some pins are removed from the full array of pins so as to form a plurality of cavities.
22. The lid of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pins form a full array on the portion of the bottom surface of the top piece outside the seal ring and some pins are removed from the full array of pins so as to form a plurality of cavities, and the adhesive material also fills in the cavities.
23. The lid of claim 1, wherein the lid further comprises a foam block in the tunnel and near the opening of the tunnel.
24. The lid of claim 1, wherein the liquid in the gap and the liquid in the tunnel is a liquid metal, including gallium and gallium alloys.
25. The lid of claim 1, wherein the liquid in the gap and the liquid in the tunnel is a liquid metal, including gallium and gallium alloys and the lid further comprises another non-metallic liquid or grease material in the tunnel.
26. The lid of claim 1, wherein the liquid in the gap and the liquid in the tunnel is a liquid metal, including gallium and gallium alloys and the lid further comprises a movable block in the tunnel.
27. The lid of claim 1, wherein the seal ring also seals at one or more sides of the flip chip.
28. The lid of claim 1, wherein the reservoir is a spiral pattern of tunnel.
29. The lid of claim 1, wherein the lid further comprises a bridging bar for forming the connecting hole from the gap to the reservoir.
30. The lid of claim 1, wherein the lid further comprises a ring-form of covering piece, which includes an array of pins on its bottom surface, and its top surface is bonded with the portion of the bottom surface of the top piece outside the seal ring.
31. The lid of claim 1, wherein the lid is made based on a method, comprising the following major steps:
- 1) Prepare a piece of material,
- 2) Form a ring-form of slot and a spiral pattern of slot on a bottom surface of the piece of material, wherein the spiral pattern of slot is outside and surrounding the ring-form of slot,
- 3) Form two through holes for making a connecting hole and an injection hole,
- 4) Form a rectangular slot on the top surface of the piece of material for connecting the two through holes,
- 5) Form a ring-form of covering piece with an array of pins on its bottom surface,
- 6) Form a seal ring, a bridging bar, and a plug,
- 7) Bond a top surface of the ring-form of covering piece with the bottom surface of the piece of material so as to cover the spiral pattern of slot and form a spiral pattern of tunnel,
- 8) Mount the bridging bar into the rectangular slot for connecting the two through holes and forming a connecting hole from a portion of the bottom surface of the piece of material surrounded by the ring-form of slot to the spiral pattern of tunnel,
- 9) Place the plug into the injection hole,
- 10) Mount the seal ring in the ring-form of slot.
32. The lid of claim 15, wherein the method for making the lid further comprises the following steps:
- 11) Apply an adhesive material on the array of pins, and then attach the lid to a flip chip package,
- 12) Fill the liquid into the gap and the tunnel type of reservoir from the injection hole, and then close the injection hole by the plug.
Type: Application
Filed: Jan 5, 2021
Publication Date: Jul 7, 2022
Inventor: Yuci Shen (San Jose, CA)
Application Number: 17/141,241